Despite the fact that the Tigers have been five or more games up in the standings virtually the entire time, it’s been a nerve-wracking few weeks for the Tigers, as they inch inexorably toward their third straight division title.

“My stomach hasn’t been too good lately, to be honest with you. It’s not too good when the highlight of your day is getting up at 7 a.m. to go to the grocery store and get prune juice.

“That’s not a very good highlight.”

The Tigers took another step toward that goal with a 6-2 win over the Mariners Tuesday, a game that was a nail-biter until late.

It left them with a magic number of six to eliminate the second-place Indians, and four to eliminate the Kansas City Royals from the divisional race. The Royals and Indians played Tuesday night in Cleveland, but the game was not finished by press time.

Even in the middle of a four-game set against the Mariners, it’s hard for the Tigers to maintain that they’re not watching the series between the Indians and Royals unfold, for all that they outwardly maintain the “one-game-at-a-time” facade.

“I watched it last night. Probably watch it again tonight. Where the (heck) am I going? I sat here in my long johns, barefoot. Had a little plate of food, watch the rest of the game. And loved every run that Kansas City scored,” Leyland said.

“That’s pretty human, isn’t it?”

Kind of hard not to have one eye on a series that might help the Tigers clinch just that much faster.

“To be honest with you — and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t — you obviously watch a little closer now than you did. But I see scores on the scoreboard every night from Day One on. I mean, there’s a time when you have a break in the action, you look out. I mean, I look right out at it (Comerica’s auxiliary scoreboard in right-center field) all season long,” Leyland said. “I look at Pittsburgh, or St. Louis. I look. People are lying if they say they don’t look.”

It was a back-and-forth game that certainly didn’t help anyone’s digestion, at least early on.

Don Kelly gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead with a solo homer in the fourth.

Anibal Sanchez was brilliant through the first five innings, striking out nine before giving up a game-tying home run to Raul Ibanez with two outs in the sixth.

Miguel Cabrera untied it with his first home run since Aug. 26 in the bottom of the inning, but the Mariners brought it back even again, knocking Sanchez out in the seventh.

Michael Saunders led off with a triple, and scored on Kendrys Morales’ pinch-hit double two batters later to tie it at 2-2. After Sanchez exited the game having thrown 125 pitches -- five off his career high -- Al Alburquerque would get a pop up and a strikeout to get him out of the second-and-third jam.

Sanchez left having struck out 10, the sixth time he’s hit double digits in strikeouts since joining the Tigers, and the ninth time in his career. He’s done it Detroit surged ahead again in the bottom of the seventh.

Alex Avila tripled to lead the inning off, but was caught in a rundown trying to score on Austin Jackson’s ground ball. He stayed in it long enough to get Jose Iglesias -- who’d been plunked -- to third, and Jackson to second.

Iglesias scored the go-ahead run on Torii Hunter’s sacrifice fly to center.

With Drew Smyly and closer Joaquin Benoit unavailable, the Tigers had to piece together 2 2/3 innings of relief following Sanchez’s departure. After Alburquerque got two outs, Phil Coke came on in the eighth, with two lefties and a switch hitter due up.

He walked two of the lefties, with an error on Iglesias sandwiched in between, forcing fellow lefty Jose Alvarez to face right-handed hitting Mike Zunino with the bases loaded. Alvarez got a double play ball to get out of the jam, preserving the one-run lead.

The Tigers finally broke it open in the eighth, with three straight singles padding the lead to 4-2, then a two-run single by Austin Jackson with the bases loaded making it 6-2.

Alvarez got the first two outs in the ninth, the Jose Veras came on to get the final out.